Stelis lacertina Luer & R.Escobar 2016 SECTION Dialissa

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

LATER

Common Name The Lizard-Like Stelis [refers to the flower resembling a head of a lizard]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Risaralda department of Colombia without elevational data as a miniature to small sized, densely caespitose epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped by a loose, tubular sheath below the middle and another 1 to 2 below and at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical-ovate, obtuse to rounded, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the later spring on 3 to 4, arising through a spathe from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .8 to 1.2" [2 to 3 cm] long, rachis to 4.8 to 7.2" [12 to 18 cm] long, erect, strict, secund, congested, simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with tubular, obtuse, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying green flowers.

"This large, caespitose species is characterized by stout ramicauls clad in long, loose, tubular sheaths, elliptical-ovate leaves, and three or four longer racemes of numerous, green flowers. The dorsal sepal is connate to the lateral sepals for nearly two millimeters to form the roof of a retrorse chin of the synsepal. The synsepal is formed by semiconnate lateral sepals with recurving margins. The petals are three-veined. The lip is a variation of type "A" with a short, rounded apex, a deeply concave glenion descending from a broad cleft in the bar, and a round callus in the center of the dorsum." Luer 2016

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Harvard Pap. Bot. 21: 203 Luer & Escobar 2016 drawing fide

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